Ars readers speak up: seven things you want to see in a new Nexus 7

Just don't hold your breath about that SD card slot, OK?

Google I/O officially kicks off on Wednesday, and the current scuttlebutt is that Google will be announcing a follow-up to the Nexus 7 tablet at its day-one keynote. We still like the original Nexus 7, but last week we put together a list of improvements we wanted to see in the new version. We also asked you what you would liked to see in a new Nexus 7, and you came through with some solid suggestions.

Naturally, you have many of the same requests we do: a higher-resolution screen, a faster processor, and a rear-facing camera among them. But you also came up with plenty of things that didn't make our list. With our combined suggestions, Google can create the perfect Nexus 7.

Don't touch that bezel!

The Nexus 7 has pretty large bezels around the screen in comparison to tablets like the iPad mini, and in our post we suggested that the screen could be made slightly larger (or the device slightly smaller) by shrinking those a bit. Commenter Phil Ta agreed with us in the post's first comment, but most of you disagreed.

Readers ironnmental, joehonkie, and many others agreed that the larger bezels make it easier to hold the device, making it less likely that you'll accidentally tap or swipe something if you rest your thumb on the surface of the screen. "Emphatically no" said charleski in response to the idea of smaller bezels. "The current ones give just enough space for your thumb so it can be held comfortably in one hand."

HDMI out, or its equivalent

Enlarge/ The Nexus 10 has micro HDMI out, and many of you would like the same to be true of the Nexus 7.

Andrew Cunningham

Quite a few of you are interested in mirroring your Nexus 7's screen on your TV, if your comments are any indication. Some, like finley, prefer the direct approach: an HDMI out port like the one found on the Nexus 10. Others, like Gisboth, would like to see wireless display output via the open Miracast standard. The current Nexus 7's lack of Miracast support is actually a bit of a mystery—Android 4.2 supports it natively, but of Google's devices the feature is only actually available on the Nexus 4 as of this writing. Nvidia has also explicitly stated that the Tegra 3 chip that powers the current Nexus 7 supports Miracast, so hopefully Google will enable it in a future update.

Returning to the next Nexus 7, there are a few other ways to enable display output without including another port. One, as mentioned by charleski, is the Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) standard, which supports HDMI output over USB. Slimport, another similar solution that is based on the DisplayPort spec and should use less power (and fewer cables) than MHL, is included in the Nexus 4.

Front-facing speakers

We already said we wanted better speakers, but you got more specific: you want front-facing speakers akin to those on the HTC One. Part of the problem with the Nexus 7's speaker is that it isn't a great speaker, and part of the problem is that the sound is often being projected into your hand, your desk, or into the air behind the tablet.

"Dont get why most laptops still do it this way either," said BBnet3000. "My desk is getting a great sonic experience, why cant I?"

Gorilla Glass

Corning's Gorilla Glass continues to be the gold standard for scratch-resistant screens, and its absence on the current Nexus 7 is a sticking point for some of you. "The stuff it uses now ain't [Gorilla Glass]," said cptskippy, "and it costs as much to repair as it does to just buy a new one." JPan, likewise, would prefer Gorilla Glass because it "doesn't scratch and shatter when you look at it badly."

My personal Nexus 7 has indeed picked up a few hairline scratches over the ten months or so that I've owned it, and while I don't even notice them when the screen is on (and can only even pick them out if the light is bouncing off the screen from certain angles) I'm all for any change that makes my electronics more durable.

More RAM

We said we wanted a faster processor and more storage at launch, but you (rightly) brought up the spec we missed: RAM. The Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and most other high-end Android devices from the last year or so all come with 2GB instead of the Nexus 7's 1GB, so we'd be surprised not to see the new one fall in line with its cousins.

"The difference between 1GB RAM on the Nexus 7 and 2GB on the Nexus 4 is noticeable with regards to how often Chrome reloads pages and such," said Syonyk.

Dual-band 802.11n

Networking is another area in which the Nexus 7 has fallen a bit behind the Nexus 4 and 10, as noted by M. Jones and others. The tablet supports the 802.11n wireless standard but only on the 2.4GHz band, which is quite congested especially in populated areas.

Both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 support 802.11n on the 5GHz band as well as 2.4GHz, and they use multiple antennas (MIMO) to send and receive multiple streams at once, which speeds up data transfers. With the new 802.11ac slowly making its way into early adopters' homes, we would really like to see dual-band 802.11n to become a minimum requirement for most new phones and tablets.

SD card support

This one comes up over and over again with Nexus devices, even though Google has gone on the record to say that SD card slots make things "confusing" and hasn't included an SD card slot in any Android reference device since the Motorola Xoom over two years ago. We'll put it on this list because this is about what you all want and many of you seem to consider the lack of microSD support a dealbreaker, but don't get your hopes up. It's not that we think expandable storage is an unreasonable desire; we just hate to see you get hurt like this.

I would have liked to see the bleeding edge Snapdragon 800 in the new nexus, but most rumor sites are reporting it will use the s4 pro, same as the Nexus 4. While it's still fast, I was just hoping that it would be top of the line right out of the gate. If it goes with the s4 pro, that means that phones like the GS4 and One are already outperforming it.

Nexus 7 supported USB on the go, the new one should as well, though the N4 omitted that functionality for some strange reason. Hopefully 4.3 makes it a permanent addition.

I could do without SD support with enough built-in storage. Something around 32/64 gigs with respective pricetags (inclusive of other features, of course) would go along way to mitigating anxiety over not being able to expand. And, really, that's one thing I want in tablets anyway: more storage. Cloud storage is great, and it sometimes appears to break the laws of physics when implemented correctly - right up to that moment your ISP goes down for a few hours.

What do I want on any smartphone or tablet? HDMI out, HDMI out, HDMI out. As these things get more powerful, it's ridiculous to ignore users who want to drive a TV screen with them. Having this feature on our SGS3s has changed all sorts of things in our house.

yo dawg we heard you like cheap removable storage on your mobile devices. So what we did was, we took that feature completely away, and implemented our crappy internal storage and cloud service that some apps don't even work with correctly.

yo dawg we heard you are upset but its okay because we know you will still wait in line for a week for our product.

I have no arguements with any of these really. Although, I don't need the video out, or front facing speakers. I just don't use my Nexus 7 in such a way that I need either, though I understand other people might.

Well I'd like to see a rear camera (for scanning documents, OCR, business cards), a 64GB version and more than 2GB internal version myself (4GB). Love to be able to colour-calibrate it as well. Otherwise I'm very happy with my existing 32GB Wifi+3G version for the money. Maybe a notification light as well to use LightFlow with.

All I want is some TV out functionality. It's the onlything on the one I have now that I miss. I don't care if it's hdmi or mhl or some Miracast. I really would like Miracast on the Nexus 7 I have now.

It's funny... I don't notice memory issues on my N7 at all... but my Bionic has been a slow pig ever since the ICS update. Android 4.0 and 4.1 are so slow as to be unusable, especially when it comes to opening the web browser.

As to wireless video: NO. I tried the wireless video thing on my laptop, and it's definitely NOT ready for prime time. Intel's wireless video has about 1 second of lag, and the video quality itself capped at 720.

I'd much rather have a separate HDMI port. While we're at it, how about standardizing the gap between the HDMI and USB ports so people can build universal docks?

I would have liked to see the bleeding edge Snapdragon 800 in the new nexus, but most rumor sites are reporting it will use the s4 pro, same as the Nexus 4. While it's still fast, I was just hoping that it would be top of the line right out of the gate. If it goes with the s4 pro, that means that phones like the GS4 and One are already outperforming it.

True but remember, their previous starting price (and one they don't want to deviate too far from) is $200, which is 1/3 or less than the GS4 or One. The current N7 represents an excellent value for the money, and I believe the next version doesn't have to be 'bleeding edge' to continue to do so.

yo dawg we heard you like cheap removable storage on your mobile devices. So what we did was, we took that feature completely away, and implemented our crappy internal storage and cloud service that some apps don't even work with correctly.

yo dawg we heard you are upset but its okay because we know you will still wait in line for a week for our product.

As to wireless video: NO. I tried the wireless video thing on my laptop, and it's definitely NOT ready for prime time. Intel's wireless video has about 1 second of lag, and the video quality itself capped at 720.

I'd much rather have a separate HDMI port. While we're at it, how about standardizing the gap between the HDMI and USB ports so people can build universal docks?

Intel's WiDi has improved since it first debuted. With Ivy Bridge it supports 1080p streaming, and latency has reportedly been cut down as well. I think that with a few more reductions to latency wireless streaming will be ready for prime time.

yo dawg we heard you like cheap removable storage on your mobile devices. So what we did was, we took that feature completely away, and implemented our crappy internal storage and cloud service that some apps don't even work with correctly.

yo dawg we heard you are upset but its okay because we know you will still wait in line for a week for our product.

Google should attempt to release it's own 1st party accessories on launch day instead of the absolute farce of a joke that was the case with the dock for the current N7. They can put out a great device but take half a year to release the accessories? It's taken so long I won't buy it now (even if I could, given it's perpetually out of stock) out of spite.

Better battery standby life and less stuff running in the background. I mainly use it on weekends as my car GPS and I have to keep it plugged in during the week or it'll be dead by the following weekend. It usually runs out of juice by Wed night. An iPad will last several weeks in standby.

It's not me that'll be hurt, it's whoever tries to sell me a device without an SD card.

'Cos I ain't buying it.

Honestly, I don't think you'll see this on many of these types of devices going forward.

What I'd like to see is a larger default internal storage capacity with a separate storage device dedicated to the OS.

My 16GB iPad Mini is really a 13.5GB iPad because the OS takes up so much space.

Flash storage is not that expensive. There's no reason why a 64GB iPad should be $200 more than an 16GB iPad. There's no good reason, with the price of flash memory, why a tablet should come with LESS than 64GB for $500.

No, you won't see reasonable storage sizes at the entry-level pricing on ANY tablet as long as people are willing to pay $200 more to get what they should have had to start with, and for this same reason you won't see an option to add an SD card, either.

Apple and Google aren't going to give up the model that works: Sell the same device with more storage with large increments of pricing for each step up. Not until someone who offers an SD card slot or a significantly higher storage capacity out sells them.

For me I bought the Nexus 7 to try Android out - I'm all iOS, having used Macs since the early 1990s.

I wanted VGA out, like my iPad 2, for doing presentations at work but the convenience that it wasn't like a brick to carry around and I can jam it in a jacket pocket. It's a downer it doesn't have video out but for the price I'm not going to complain.

Weight is a big factor for me as I use it for reading e-books. The iPad 2 I have is way too heavy for that.

Having tried the new HP Slate 7, which is even cheaper, I'd say that the feature set for the price of the Nexus 7 is fine so anything incremental would be the right move.

Miracast sounds nice, but STB's are few and far between. There are a handful of DLNA servers on the play store that enable nearly the same functionality and work on a lot of existing devices. Plugging your device into a TV just sounds like a big chore, especially since you're then tethered to it via short cable for operation.

I bought a 16G and later flipped it and bought a 32G HSPA+ unit which I still have an will soon flip. I use it pretty much daily for many things. Ereader, watching tv show, listening to music (head phones) and gaming. It's a great unit. I'd love to see a 1080p screen and a faster, better CPU. Definitely wish they'd go Snapdragon 800 series. As to the slimmer bezel / larger screen argument, I like the bezel being a tad wide as I can grab it and not tap the screen like I do ALL THE TIME on my Note2. It can be so frustrating.

As to the sound system, it was the one fatal flaw for the Nexus7 imho. I really would love stereo front facing speakers of decent (to better than decent) quality. If they marketed to memory sizes, 32G and 64G with options to purchase with data or WiFi only, I'd be happy with the space. The few times that I've had issue with space, I used StickMount and just plugged in an adapter ($2 on Amazon) with a 32G tiny Sandisk thumb drive and watched the shows or movies on there. (Yes, I rooted it.)

Intel's WiDi has improved since it first debuted. With Ivy Bridge it supports 1080p streaming, and latency has reportedly been cut down as well. I think that with a few more reductions to latency wireless streaming will be ready for prime time.

I've used Intel's latest iteration of WiDi quite recently, and I'm unimpressed. It doesn't drop-out when someone walks between the devices, as people feared with 60GHz... Instead it drops-out at utterly and completely random times, for no apparent reason.

And whenever there's the slightest glitch, instead of the picture freezing for a couple frames, it pixelizes all to hell, and everyone watching the screen lets out a groan like they've been punched in the gut.

Right now, HDMI cables are an EASY choice. We've got enough issues with artifact-laden video, and technical glitches. We don't want to introduce another unnecessary layer of more of those. And WiDi is more range-limited than HDMI CABLES, which is a pretty sad statement to have to make.

Wireless video output might make sense in the future, but it will be a few years away, at least. What's out there right now isn't a viable HDMI replacement. Maybe 802.11ac will get 60GHz in enough devices that people will be motivated to work out all these software issues. But right now, you want to stay far, far away.

SD Expansion is one major benefit that makes no sense to remove. Cheap expansion being taken away would be lame.

Also, what's with the different size "tiles" that resemble a windows 8 ripoff in the pic? Make all of it resizable, please. I hate wacky sized crap.

Not a huge fan of my ipad, as I just don't use it much, miss direct storage access, swype, and a few other things Android does do right, but a well made Android tablet might be nice to see. ...again, fragmentation ruins things when not a single one can compare to Apple's build quality, simplicity, etc. They ought to be able to make a much better one, but yet again, I find myself wondering if I might as well give up on Android altogether and just get used to an idevice.

Inductive charging, as someone up there mentioned, would be a huge plus. I'm really ready to ditch wires. Calibre + Calibre Companion can sync my Android library wirelessly, and I'm ready to say goodbye to us plugging in two tablets and two phones each night.

I want storage of documents and videos/pictures to be in the 300 gig range or better local storage. I don't care how its done. with the only caveat being that usb connected storage would defeat the idea of a tablet, so keep the tablet as a tablet but give me that 300 of NOT CONNECTED to the internet storage and I will be happy.

Gorilla glass is imo a must also simply because it costs less to do it now and not have to deal with broken/scratched screen (for gods sake this is a mobil device that will see minor accidents all the time), etc.

everything else on the list is extra tho I also think a smaller bezel might be in order. if you make the device a true 7 incher device the need to hold it with the thumb is obviated.

Also, what's with the different size "tiles" that resemble a windows 8 ripoff in the pic? Make all of it resizable, please. I hate wacky sized crap.

That's a widget. Most launchers now allow you to re-size them.

nope. will not get used to it. its not the maker that decides if I buy it. they either come up with what I want or I will end up eventually going with apple.

EDIT: of course only when apple provides the needed storage. of course that will also be the same time the next upgrade of nexus that will have that storage, just to make sure that they can undercut apple, which I am all for. Key here is, I will go with a competitor, so long as they give me what I want, vs nexus which is otherwise a superior product to what I have.

Better battery standby life and less stuff running in the background. I mainly use it on weekends as my car GPS and I have to keep it plugged in during the week or it'll be dead by the following weekend. It usually runs out of juice by Wed night. An iPad will last several weeks in standby.

Android is not quite as good at handling standby as iOS. I turned off location services and set wifi off during sleep and suddenly my Nexus 7 only needed charging every 4-5 days instead of every 1 and a half (using it a couple of hours a day for reading). Greenify can help with greedy apps as well. But if you don't use it at all during the week you should power it down completely rather than letting it sit in standby.

also I use a lenovo tablet, the standby on that is significant and a delight. even with network on. so that tells me that the issue isn't android. After all the Lenovo is using ICS. I can get nearly a week of standby with the network on. or longer. I think the last time I charged my Lenovo 2701 was nearly 2 weeks ago and it still has about 30% battery left.there must be something else, OH and btw, I did go through the whole system to optimize the battery usage, but the buttons and levers must be there or I wouldn't be getting such a good standby time.

SD card support is BY FAR the most user requested feature for Nexus devices, yet the writer seems curiously reluctant to put it on this list at all.

Why?

Calling this a list of "ARS reader requested features" without giving SD card support overwhelming prominence is disingenuous at best. Clearly, Andrew Cunningham doesn't agree regarding SD cards. He's entitled to that opinion, but he should have titled this article "Seven things Andrew Cunningham wants to see in a new Nexus 7".

Lack of SD card support is a deal breaker for quite a lot of us, far more than any other single feature.

I'd be up for all of these, especially stronger glass. Just this weekend I dropped my 3G Nexus 7. Though it's in a leather case, it managed to land exactly on the corner and ruined the screen and the digitizer, so now it won't recognize touches in the top half of the screen.

Even just buying the parts from ebay to fix it cost half as much as a new one, so at this point I'm thinking I'll wait until the new version is released and either buy that or, if it doesn't seem improved enough, then maybe the price on the original ones will go down.

Aside from stronger glass, I'd definitely be interested in more RAM, better battery life and an SD slot as I'd like to be able to have more of my movies and music stored locally for long flights.

- aluminum back- thinner- decent glass and no goddamn scratch magnet- decent Mac syncing.- slightly bigger screen and same form factor, with 5" phones around the case for 7" tablets has been reduced greatly

Oh and I almost forgot, the most important feature I'd look for in a new Nexus device: The ability to actually transfer files to it from Linux - preferably by making it visible just as a storage device. The MTP capabilities in Linux are a joke and it takes me forever just to transfer a few songs over to the Nexus.

Who the hell makes a Linux based device which doesn't work for crap when connected to a Linux system?

If they must stick with MTP, then Google should write some solid, functional MTP drivers and software that actually work.

SD card support is BY FAR the most user requested feature for Nexus devices, yet the writer seems curiously reluctant to put it on this list at all.

Why?

Calling this a list of "ARS reader requested features" without giving SD card support overwhelming prominence is disingenuous at best. Clearly, Andrew Cunningham doesn't agree regarding SD cards. He's entitled to that opinion, but he should have titled this article "Seven things Andrew Cunningham wants to see in a new Nexus 7".

Lack of SD card support is a deal breaker for quite a lot of us, far more than any other single feature.

Does it matter where in the list it falls? Andrew said...

Quote:

Naturally, you have many of the same requests we do: a higher-resolution screen, a faster processor, and a rear-facing camera among them. But you also came up with plenty of things that didn't make our list. With our combined suggestions, Google can create the perfect Nexus 7.